Scientific-academic writing in university education: Effectiveness of the design and implementation of a software (SWS) for its improvement

Abstract

In university training, scientific-academic writing is key for the preparation of End-of-Degree or Diploma Projects. However there is a great gap in pedagogical research on valuable technological resources for the development of these skills. This contribution aims to scientifically show the incidence of teaching through specific software (Scientific Writing Skills) in improving scientific-academic writing skills. The study is carried out with 145 students of Computer Science Engineering from the University of Computer Sciences of Havana (Cuba). Once the training needs that students perceive for the preparation of scientific-academic texts have been identified, a pre-test and post-test experimental design is applied to contrast the effect of the technical-pedagogical training model designed specifically to improve the competence of scientific-academic writing. The technological design allowed to collect data in an automated way to contrast the research hypotheses. The results show that students who make use of the experienced model obtain significant improvements in terms of the ability to write titles, preparation of summaries, selection of keywords, preparation of bibliography, writing of the problem and research objectives, as well as preparation of conclusions and recommendations. These results are a sample of the potential of technologies to develop scientific-academic writing skills in university education.